I'll be blunt here: I wanted to love this book, and didn't.

I've been fascinated with palmistry for years. An acquantaince at a psychic fair read my palm many moons ago, and foretold several interesting tidbits in my life. As well, a few folks have shook my hand, looked at my palm and then told me fascinating information (all accurate). So getting an advance copy of this book (thank you NetGalley and publisher!) was welcomed with glee.

Sadly, the book - like the others in the In Focus series - oddly jump right into the details without a lot of explanation or background. Yes, I realize this is a small, focused book - but if I know nothing about the topic I need a bit of an introduction. Instead, this book immediately discusses what palmistry can and cannot do.

Then we learn a small amount of history, and then the details of reading each part of the hand. Phew! This is overwhelming, and a bit too dense of material. The images, however, are delightful, useful and approrpriate. I wished there were one for every explanation, as a few times I couldn't tell if my own palm fit the description.

This is where the book fails, for me. Rarely did I find my palm in any of the readings. I don't think I'm that unusual, especially since others have read my palm effortlessly in the past. Yet, with each passing chapter I was left empty. Nope, not in the love line, fate line, apollo lione, fingers, fingerprints, thumb.... gosh, I'm nowhere in here. Okay, I give up.

I suspect for a book like this to succeed in it's task, it needs more illustrations covering every possible situation so that folks can feel included, or at least find the point to learning such a detailed craft. I, however, will continue to leave this art to the experts. ( )

There is more to reading someone's hand than just looking at the lines of the palm. This book explains how the shape of the hand, fingers and fingernails are as important as the lines of the palm, the fingerprints and so many more lines.
I was actually impressed how many different lines there are to be considered in a hand reading. ( )

In Focus Palmistry by Roberta Vernon

Interested in learning to read palms? This book is jam packed with information to absorb and memorize that will help you see hands in a totally new way. It will take some time to learn it all but it is a treasure trove of ideas and knowledge gleaned over the years by the author who gladly shares it with the reader. I do believe to become adept one would need to keep the book in hand and practice on friends and family for a while ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for the ARC – this is my honest review.

4 Stars ( )